History Pages - Part 11

The Prophet Mohammed and the Rise of Islam

AD 600-800

Slavic invasions of Northern Byzantine regions; Slavs eventually migrated into, but did not rule, southern Greece. In Greece - Widespread civil war and invasions by Persians, Arabs and Slavs

AD 600-1300

The Jewish Rabbinic Geonim (Gaons) - scholars and interpreters of Jewish Law

AD 609

The Pantheon (pagan temple) in Rome renamed the Church of Santa Maria Rotonda

AD 610

Call of the Prophet Mohammed - his vision of the Angel Gabriel in the cave of Hira, and descent of the Quran

AD 610-641

Reign of Emperor Heraclius - made Greek the official language of the Byzantine Empire. The Empire in great danger : Avars, Slavs and Bulgars overran the Balkans, and Persians invaded the eastern provinces

AD 614

Persians invaded and took Jerusalem, Damascus, and the "Holy Cross of Christ" from the Byzantine Empire; allowed Jews back, but drove them out again 3 years later

AD 615

Earliest records of some of the Prophet Mohammed's teachings

AD 616

Persians overran Egypt

AD 622

The Hegira - Flight of the Prophet Mohammed from Medina to Mecca - Year 1 of the Muslim Calendar, 1 a.h. (anno hegirae)

AD 622-680

The Monothelite controversy, which was condemned by the 6th Ecumenical Council of Constantinople

AD 624

Prophet Mohammed married Aysha, the 10-year old daughter of Abu Bekr

AD 624-627

Prophet Mohammed attacked and destroyed Jewish Arabians who did not convert to Islam

AD 625

Prophet Mohammed began to dictate the Quran
Brahmagupta, Indian mathematician and teacher at Ujjain
Paulinus of Rome went as a missionary to Northumbria

AD 626

Edwin of Northumbria founded Edinburgh, set about bringing Christianity to his people
First great siege of Constantinople, by the Avars, and the Persians under Shahen

AD 627

Byzantines defeated Persians at Nineveh

AD 628

Prophet Mohammed captured Mecca, and wrote to all the rulers of the world, explaining Islam
Heraclius defeated the Persians and brought back "The Cross of Christ", perhaps the first full-fledged crusade

AD 629

Heraclius recovered Jerusalem from Persians
The title Basileus was taken by the Emperor Heraclius, just after the final Persian defeat. A sign of the Oriental influences in the Byzantine court;
Pope Honorius I sided with Emperor Heraclius and the Monothelites

AD 630

The Arab (Islamic) Conquest of the Middle East began

AD 632

Christianity brought to East Anglia
Death of Prophet Mohammed. Abu Bekr, father-in-law of Prophet Mohammed, became the first of the "rightly guided caliphs" of Islam; Medina became the seat of the "rightly guided caliphs" Fatima, youngest daughter of Prophet Mohammed, was the ancestress of the House of the Fatimids. Her sons were Hassan and Hussein

AD 632-732

Arab conquest of the Middle East, North Africa, Spain and Southern France

AD 633

Moslem invasion of Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Persia

AD 634

Omar I, the second Caliph, took Syria, Persia, and Egypt, and defeated Heraclius in Holy War

AD 635

Christianity brought to Wessex

AD 635-750

Damascus became the capital of the Caliphs

AD 636

Battle of Yarmuk - Arabs defeated the Byzantine army, took Syria and Palestine
Persian Zoroastrians fled to India, settled there
The southern Irish Church submitted to Roman Catholicism
Building of the church at Glastonbury (on the site reputed to have been founded by Joseph of Arimathea, and the burial place of King Arthur)
Building of the church at St. Albans (site of the first Christian martyrs)

AD 636-1,099

First Muslim Period in Israel/Palestine

ca. AD 637

French and German diverged into separate languages

AD 638

Omar I captured Jerusalem, left the Christian shrines alone, started to build on the Temple Mount (derelict since the Roman destruction of AD 135), and permitted Jews to return to Jerusalem
The emperor Heraclius wrote the "Ecthesis", which claimed that Christ had only one "nature" - the Monothelite heresy

AD 640

Aidan went as a missionary to Northumbria

AD 641

Arab Conquest of Egypt, led by Omar I
The School of Alexandria was destroyed, and the Library of Alexandria, "The Center of Western Culture", with 300,000 scrolls, burned to the ground
Death of Emperor Heraclius; the Byzantine Empire was reduced to Asia Minor, the Balkan coastline, north Africa and Sicily

AD 641-668

Emperor Constans II, grandson of Heraclius. The bulk of his reign was occupied with wars against the Arabs. He was murdered in Sicily

AD 642

Omar I conquered the Persian Empire, drove out Zoroastrianism, introduced Islam, and set up a Caliphate which lasted until 1258

AD 645

Anglo-Saxon king Ethelhere died and was buried in a ship with treasure at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk - excavated in 1939

Council of Whitby - to settle differences between Roman and Eastern Christian practices in Britain. King Oswy of Northumbria was persuaded to adopt the Roman traditions

AD 669

Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, re-organized the Church in England
Arabs attacked Constantinople

AD 670

Arab invasion of Africa

AD 671

Caedmon, first Christian English Poet and Song-writer, born. Lived as a cow-herd at Whitby Abbey until his talents were discovered by Hilda of Whitby, who arranged for his education

AD 672-735

The Venerable Bede - English monk, historian, and translator of parts of the New Testament

AD 673-754

Boniface, missionary to the Germans, murdered 754

AD 674-678

Second siege of Constantinople by the Arabs

AD 675-749

John of Damascus, Christian scholar

AD 679

Bulgars (a Hunnish tribe) invaded the Byzantine Empire and settled south of the Danube

AD 680

Seventh Ecumenical Council convened in Constantinople. Condemned Monophysitism and Monothelitism, and affirmed that Christ is of two wills and two energies without division, alteration, separation or confusion. An appendix to this Council, the Synod in Trullo, drew up what became the constitution and rule of the Byzantine Church. The Monophysite churches of Armenia, Syria and Egypt seceded
Massacre of Ali's son Husayn and the Shiites in Iraq

AD 688-741

Charles Martel - "The Hammer"

ca. AD 690

The earliest Bible translations into England's vernacular, with continued work by Bede and others from that time on

AD 691

Construction of the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount by Caliph Abd-al-Malik

AD 692

The Quinisext Coucil at Constantinople settled the Canon of the Bible for the Eastern Church - the Council was not recognized by the Roman Church

AD 697

Carthage fell to the Arabs as they advanced towards Spain

AD 699

Arabs overran Armenia

AD 700

The Psalms translated into Anglo-Saxon
The Lindisfarne Gospels - illuminated book of manuscript Gospels, still in existence

AD 711

Arab Moslems invaded Spain, allowed Jews to live and study freely

AD 712

Moslem state set up in India

AD 715

The Moslem empire extended from the Pyrenees to China, with Damascus as its capital;Boniface started his missionary work in Germany

AD 717-718

Third siege of Constantinople

AD 720

The Iconoclasts - "Image breakers" - did not allow the use of images in Byzantine Churches
Arabs invaded France, captured Narbonne

King Ine of Wessex introduced "Peter's Pence", a tax intended to support a College in Rome. This tax became a major grievance between the English and the Roman Churches
Controversy about Images, Emperor Leo III forbade the worship of icons and followed it with the general destruction of icons representing Christ and the saints. His original motive was probably theological, but the movement became an attack on the Church, and particularly the monasteries whose power was aided by their possession of holy pictures. The icons were replaced by symbols, such as the Cross. Iconoclasm met with passionate resistance. Riots in Constantinople. The Iconoclastic conflict continued until AD 843
Patriarchates of Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria under Arab rule

AD 730

Pope Gregory III excommunicated the Byzantine Emperor Leo IIIThe Venerable Bede wrote the "Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum" - Ecclesiastical History of the English People

AD 732

Battle of Tours - Charles Martel led the French forces and won the Battle against Moslem invaders - this stopped the Moslem advance into Europe

Jewish Kingdom of Khazar - stood against Moslems, Byzantines, and Russians, until taken by Genghis Khan

AD 750

First recorded use of hops for brewing beer - in Bavaria

AD 750-900

The Pueblo Period in North America

AD 750-1,258

The Abbasids destroyed the Omayyads, and become Islamic Caliphs of Baghdad - the "Golden Age" of Islamic culture

AD 751

Battle of Samarkand - Arabs defeated Chinese, and captured some Chinese paper manufacturers, who taught the Arabs the art of making paper
Islam developed four sects - Hafenites, Malikites, Shafites, Sunnites

AD 759

The Franks recaptured Narbonne from the Arabs

AD 760

Jewish Karaite sect founded by Anan Ben David; accepted only the Biblical writings, did not accept the Oral LawTurkish Empire founded in Armenia by Tartars
Arabic Numerals in use

AD 766

Alcuin made York a center for learning

AD 778

Basques defeated the army of Charlemagne at Roncesvalles in the Pyrenees - the leaders Roland and Oliver became the subjects of "The Song of Roland"

AD 780-802

Byzantine Empress Irene, restored adoration of images in the Eastern Church

AD 782

Alcuin left York and went to the court of Charlemagne to help develop schools and learning

AD 786-809

Harun al-Rashid, Caliph of the Abbasids - "Golden Period of Arab Learning"

AD 787

Eighth Ecumenical Council was convened in Nikaia by Empress Irene, condemned Iconoclasm and restored the use of iconsDanes started to invade England

AD 792

Vikings started to attack Britain

AD 795

Cynewulf, Anglo-Saxon Christian poet

AD 796

Alcuin became head of the University of Tours

AD 800

Charlemagne crowned as Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III, December 25, in RomeThe Synod of Aix-la-Chapelle introduced the "Filioque"; ("and the Son", referring to the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father) into the Creed. This became a major cause of dissension between Eastern and Western Churches
Haroun Al-Raschid sent an Embassy to the court of Charlemagne

Main Sources : Smithsonian Timelines of Ancient History, The Timetables of History (Bernard Grun)